Pain! Possibly the next level…

Fun with explosives…

The year was 2007 and Sony’s black, glossy (George Forman) size PlayStation 3 was on the market. It was competing with Nintendo’s Wii Sport’s (everybody and their grandma plays) console and Microsoft’s (Red Ring of Death) Xbox 360, if there really was a competition? Blu-ray versus HD DVD. Remember the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, that tale is for another day. For now, let me just say, I am Legend. When I bought my PlayStation 3 – it came bundled with a copy Will Smith’s post apocalyptic thriller.

But I’m not talking film or a media format that lasted less than two years, gaming is the subject. Games like Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Flow along with Rachet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Lair and PixelJunk Racers that released throughout a bombastic year for PlayStation Network and Sony’s seventh generation console.

Flow would go on to win the award for the best downloadable game at the Game Developers Choice Awards the following year and subsequently be the most downloaded game on the PlayStation Network at the time.

Then came along Pain – developed by Idol Minds (Deck Nine), releasing first digitally and then several years later physically. Pain was/is a game of carnage, one hefty slingshot, various locations to crash, bang, wallop into and characters such as the main protagonist Jarvis to mess up along with other PlayStation titular characters like Buzz, Daxter, Fat Princess and a host of celebrities. Notably Flavor Flav, George Takei, Andy Dick and David Hasselhoff. Not a patch on Cookie or Nurse Ginger.

In today’s gaming landscape of Twitch shooters and rinse and repeat sequels, would there be enough call to warrant a remake? Could you see yourself and a couple of mates sat down together, flinging Mae Ryder into explosive barrels, down steps and into a giant inflatable UFO – only for you both laugh at the ooching? Could a level maker and the possibility of being released on PC so that the modding crowd can work magic and breathe new life into a previous gem.

Pain: The Next Level, cranking the pain up with jetpacks, flinging Taylor Swift and a car, something akin, a mash-up of Turbo Dismount and Flatout into exploding ten-pins, Nathan Drake climbing onto a rocket and be fired towards a dartboard, you can see what I’m getting at.

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